Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  Jackpot.

  Six full moons in a row, Gareth had headed out in the middle of the night to Acrux Courtyard where the students hung out in our free time between classes.

  Who were you meeting?

  My mouth was dry. What if it was more than just him and this King person? He’d mentioned a girl. If several people met at that time then maybe they still did? It was a full moon tonight...

  I looked out of the window as my heart started beating faster. If there was even the slightest chance of that being the case then I had to know.

  We’ll never keep secrets, Ella.

  My triumphant smile turned sour as I thought back on that. Because it had been a lie in the end. Gareth had secrets. And I was beginning to think they’d gotten him killed.

  A knock came at the door and I frowned, pushing myself up and heading across the room to open it. Cindy stood there, a pout pushing out her painted pink lips as her eyes fell on me. She glanced over my shoulder. “Is Dante here?”

  “No.” I pressed my shoulder to the doorway and pulled the door over to block her view - and to piss her off.

  She huffed, her eyes sliding up me and pausing on my hair. “Purple’s not really your colour, sweetie.”

  “Green’s not yours either but you wear it every time I’m anywhere near Dante. It’s kind of sad how little you think of yourself, Cindy.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she spat.

  “You’re clearly threatened by me. But you’re welcome to Dante if you want him.” My gut twisted in a way that said that wasn’t entirely true, but hell if I was ever gonna admit it.

  Her lips twisted into a sneer. “What’s to be threatened by, sugar? You look like a half price hooker, I bet your mommy was one too-” Crash. I threw her into the wall opposite with a blast of air, fury pounding through my veins.

  “Don’t you ever talk about my mother!” I snapped. I had no issue with being called a hooker. Or even her insinuating my mom was one. Because frankly, sometimes she was. And more power to her. But a cheap one? Oh hell fucking no.

  Cindy raised her hands to fight back just as Dante rounded the corner and she quickly dropped them, bursting into tears instead. I growled my irritation as Cindy ran into Dante’s arms.

  “She’s crazy!” she wailed. “She attacked me.” Dammit she was a good actor, there were actual real-life tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Did you, carina?” he asked in surprise.

  “Yeah but she-”

  “I was just coming to look for you and she flipped.” Cindy backed further into his arms, recoiling from me. It was fucking overkill.

  “Oh come on, you can’t really believe that shit.” I tutted and Cindy buried her face in Dante’s blazer with another sob.

  “Walk me back to my room,” she sniffed. “I don’t feel safe around her.”

  Dante slid an arm around her shoulders with a sigh. “Come on then.” He steered her back down the corridor, throwing a glance over his shoulder at me and I rolled my eyes.

  Cindy Lou was officially my enemy. And it wasn’t like I needed any more of those in this school. But it looked like she was determined to get on my shit list. So that was right where she was gonna go.

  ***

  I hadn’t slept. I’d meant to, but sleep just wouldn’t come while I knew where I was going and what I was doing. I might just be about to catch a murderer.

  Gabriel wasn’t back yet. The window was open a crack for whenever he decided to appear but I didn’t read into his absence. Maybe he wasn’t back because he was the one the messages had been from. But it also wasn’t unusual for him to be out this late. He kept his own hours, did his own thing. He was as unpredictable as the wind he spent so much time soaring through.

  I slid from my bunk and landed on the floor silently. A soft glow came through the sheet wrapped around Dante’s bed letting me know he was still awake and on his Atlas but he didn’t have any sound playing on it.

  I’d kept a pair of black leggings and a vest on and I reached out to snag a hoody from the closet too. I stepped towards the door but the sheet beside me was pushed back as Dante sat up in his bed.

  “Going somewhere, carina?” he asked me in his lilting accent. A white sheet was draped around his waist but his chest was bare, giving me a look at the hard muscles of his body.

  “Hunting,” I replied, flashing my fangs at him.

  He eyed me with interest.

  “You don’t usually wait for night to hunt.”

  “What are you, my mom?” I asked. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t be going out in the dark that you want to tell me about? Because I sleep with a monster beneath my bed and I’m not dead yet.”

  Dante grinned, flexing his fingers so the gold rings he wore caught the light. They should have made him look like a total douchebag but somehow they didn’t. He wore gold because as a Dragon Shifter he drew his power from it and the jewellery he wore seemed more like a warning than anything else. Not that anyone needed reminding what he was. He was one of the biggest guys I’d ever met, his emotions sent static energy skittering through the air. I could more easily forget that the sky was blue than forget what his Order form was.

  “Well don’t stay out too late, it’s a school night,” he teased.

  I rolled my eyes at him and kicked my sneakers on as I headed for the door.

  I pulled my hood up over my lilac hair as I made it out into the corridor and jogged down the stairs before pushing my way outside.

  It might have been a full moon but with the thick clouds that didn’t mean anything. It was pitch black outside and without my enhanced Vampire sight I probably would have struggled to see much of anything.

  It was five minutes to midnight. I was cutting it close but that was what I’d wanted. I didn’t know what Order of Fae might be out here and the last thing I needed was to be detected hanging around waiting for them. Better I arrive when they did and caught them that way. With my speed I could get away quickly enough if it became necessary.

  A huge tree stood on the sloping meadow of Devil’s Hill before the courtyard and I headed straight for it in the dark. I used my strength to help me scale its trunk and perched on a thick limb as I looked out towards the bleachers and picnic benches which marked out the gang territories within the school.

  I held my breath, my pulse like the frantic beat of hummingbird wings as I waited. And waited. And waited.

  All was still in the courtyard. And everywhere else for that matter. Nothing moved, no sounds disturbed the silence. It was just...empty.

  At twenty past twelve I sighed and dropped out of the tree. Whoever Gareth had been meeting on the full moon had obviously stopped coming after his death. Maybe there was no point without him. Or maybe they met somewhere else now just in case someone caught on to them. That’s what I’d do, I guessed. If they killed him they wouldn’t want to keep doing anything that they’d done with him. Cut off all leads. Make it harder to find them. Yeah. This asshole was smart enough for that. I’d just have to keep searching. The full moon was obviously important though so maybe I could figure out where else they might hold clandestine meetings on campus. There couldn’t be that many options...

  I trailed towards the courtyard as my thoughts spiralled through the various possibilities. It was hard though, without knowing what the meeting was for, how could I figure out how much space they needed? If it was just two people talking then it could be done just about anywhere. A group would be harder to hide, especially if they were casting magic...

  I made it into the centre of the courtyard and I glanced about at the abandoned space with a shiver of anticipation running down my spine. This was the only part of the courtyard I’d ever entered. Dead centre. No man’s land. All students walked through the middle to Altair Halls for classes and the cafaeteria. But no one aside from the gangs deviated from the path.

  My gaze trailed over the picnic benches where the Oscura Clan held court. There was nothing particularly intimidating a
bout them without the pack of Werewolves and their hangers on filling them.

  The Lunar Brotherhood bleachers on the other hand were just as ominous in the dark, towering up to my left, silently daring me to step closer.

  A shiver danced along my spine.

  Since Gareth had died, I’d found it hard to truly feel anything. But fear was always potent. And a little tempting too. It made me feel alive.

  I took a step closer, biting my lip at the thrill, the sharpness of the emotion. I just wanted to experience it. To push into it for a moment.

  It was so dark that even my eyes couldn’t pick apart the shadows as I drew closer and closer to the stacks of wooden benches but adrenaline trickled along my limbs like the sweetest warning, seeming to whisper danger in my ear.

  I made it to the foot of the towering rows of seats and brushed my fingers across the wooden bench where Ryder always sat, glaring at anyone who so much as glanced his way. Violence always seemed to dance around him like a promise and there was something about it that drew me in despite myself. He was a mystery. I wanted to know what made him tick beyond the only two emotions he claimed to feel. Pain and lust. I didn’t believe anyone could truly be defined so simply no matter what he thought.

  “Are you here to sign up to the Brotherhood?” Ryder’s voice came from right behind me and I gasped in fright, whirling around to look at him.

  He was shirtless, buttoning his fly and I realised he must have been near by in his Order form before shifting back. A snake’s heartbeat wouldn’t have drawn my attention; I’d learned to ignore animal sounds within the first few months of my Order Awakening.

  He stepped closer to me, glaring as he waited for his answer and I fell straight into the trap of his gaze.

  My lips fell open as he pushed his hypnotic powers over me. Now that I knew what was happening, I could tell the difference between the visions he sent me and reality but it didn’t stop me from seeing and feeling everything he wanted me to. There was a slightly fuzzy quality to everything outside the two of us, like he hadn’t bothered to give it much attention when he created this vision, but I guessed that didn’t matter when all of his focus was on me.

  Vision Ryder stepped forward and pushed me back so that my ass hit the bleachers, the sting of it seeming so real that a gasp escaped my lips. He caught the backs of my knees and slid me towards him so that he was positioned between my thighs and the ache I felt for him increased as he smiled down at me, the moon slipping out from the clouds to cast him in silver and shadows.

  In the blink of an eye both of our clothes were gone as if they’d never been there at all and he pushed me so that I fell back to lie beneath him.

  “Ryder,” I warned but it came out as a breathy plea instead as he positioned himself to claim me.

  “You wanna scream my name a little louder?” he teased, leaning forward and wrapping his huge hand around my neck.

  I wanted to fight him off but the Elise in his fantasy just lay there, staring up at him with wide eyes and a thundering heart.

  His other hand gripped the hard length of him and he lined himself up to take me, pinning me in his gaze like he wanted to drink in exactly what I was feeling.

  My breaths came in urgent pants and I found myself wondering just what he would feel like. Would this fantasy live up to reality or was he being overly generous with his true capabilities?

  Ryder didn’t waste any time making sure I was ready for him. The feeling of him slamming inside me was so real that an actual moan escaped my lips. It might have been a fantasy, but it felt so good that it hurt.

  Ryder’s eyes lit with that knowledge as he started moving faster, his hand tightening around my neck enough to cause a flicker of pain but not enough to cut off the moans spilling from my lips.

  “More,” I breathed and his eyes sparked with excitement as I realised that had come from the real me and not his fantasy version.

  In his vision I started clawing at his arm where he pinned me down, drawing blood with my fingernails as he continued to thrust into me harder and harder.

  But that wasn’t right either. I wasn’t some weak, submissive girl who’d just lay beneath him and put up a half assed fight. I was a Vampire with more strength in my limbs than he even knew. If I wanted him off of me he’d be off.

  The vision flickered for a moment and I was standing before him again, fully dressed, lips parted, breathing heavy. Then I was beneath him again as he fucked me so hard that I was begging him to release me into an orgasm I could feel building. He wasn’t going to make me come with some unrealistic fantasy of us though.

  With a snarl that was half lust and half rage, my fangs snapped out and the vision shattered.

  Ryder’s eyes widened with surprise and I got the feeling that hadn’t happened to him very often.

  “I think you’ve got me all wrong, asshole,” I growled as I stalked towards him. “I’m not some submissive little Fae just begging for you to fuck me. I’m a monster of my own variety. And I like it better on top.”

  I leapt at him with bloodlust pumping through my veins and my fangs aimed at his throat. With my speed and strength he didn’t stand much chance of fighting me off from this distance but he didn’t even try.

  I slammed into him, driving my fangs into his throat as my weight collided with his chest and I sent him crashing to the concrete beneath me. A hiss of pain that sounded really damn sexual escaped him but I didn’t care. I dug my fingers into his chest and sucked on his neck, not even trying to be gentle with him as I drank deeply from his life force.

  His blood rolled over my tongue and I moaned in satisfaction as the raw brutality of his power flowed into me, riding on the coppery taste. I drew more and more of his magic into my body, swallowing greedily like I’d never be able to get enough.

  I straddled him on the cold ground, pinning him down with my strength forcefully even though he wasn’t making any effort to fight me off. He moved his hands to grip my waist, pushing up my shirt until he was grasping my flesh and a groan of pleasure escaped him.

  He pulled me down so he could grind against me, making sure I felt the bulge of his arousal keenly between my thighs and sending an ache of a different kind through me. But I wasn’t going to be taking anything from him apart from blood and power.

  I shifted, catching his wrists and tugging his hands off of me before slamming them down onto the concrete by his head to stop him from pawing at me.

  “Fuck,” he breathed on what sounded like a laugh.

  I growled at him, driving my fangs deeper as I took my fill of his blood until his energy was coursing through my veins, making my heart pound to a wild, untameable beat.

  I finally pulled back and glared at him as I slowly released my hold on his wrists and made a move to stand.

  “Wait,” he said, snatching my hand into his grasp. “Do it again.”

  “What?” I cocked a brow at him. I wasn’t sure I’d ever bitten anyone quite that violently before aside from when my Order was first Awakened and I’d certainly never had anyone ask me for an encore right after I’d finished.

  A bead of blood slipped down my chin and he reached out to touch it, brushing his thumb across my jaw and smearing it over my skin.

  “I wanna see your pretty skin painted red with my blood.”

  “You’re so dark,” I breathed, wondering why I was lingering here. I’d taken what I wanted from him and made my point clearly enough.

  “You have no idea.”

  And I don’t want to. Right?

  I rolled my eyes like he didn’t intrigue and terrify me in equal measures and got to my feet, pulling out of his grip.

  Ryder got up too, towering over me as he took a step closer. The glimmer in his eyes said he wasn’t done with me, but I wasn’t planning on hanging out in the shadows with him any longer.

  “What the hell were you doing out here in the middle of the night anyway?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Why? Do you wanna make this rendezvous a reg
ular occurrence?” he asked roughly, his eyes scraping over me in a way that shouldn’t have been legal.

  “Are you offering to be my Source?” I asked, wondering if I should try and claim him for my own personal blood donor. Not that I had any reason to think he’d agree to that; he was stronger than me so I wouldn’t be able to overpower him most of the time but he had claimed to like being bitten so it couldn’t hurt to ask. And his blood was amongst the best I’d ever tasted so I if I could get more of it then I definitely would.

  “How about we make a trade?” Ryder asked, a glimmer in his eye. “I’ll let you keep sucking on my neck, so long as you start sucking on some of my other body parts too.”

  I let my eyes run down the hard muscles of his chest and came to rest on his fly as I licked my lips slowly. That didn’t even sound like the worst offer in the world but I wasn’t going to be whoring myself out for anything. I’d watched my mom live that life and it had broken her. My body was my own and if I was going to be giving it to anyone then it would be on my own terms, not in payment for anything.

  “Never mind then,” I said dismissively. “But thanks for the drink, sweetie,” I added casually, taking a step back.

  “Sweetie? There’s nothing sweet about me, new girl,” he scoffed.

  “Sure there is,” I purred, holding my ground as he advanced again. “You taste like rainbow dust on a fresh summer morning dipped in sugar.” I licked his blood from my bottom lip to emphasise my point and his brow furrowed.

  “I doubt it. Maybe you need another taste.” He bared his throat to me and I smiled, no fangs in sight.

  “Thanks but no thanks. Wouldn’t wanna get diabetes.” I winked at him then shot away with my Vampire speed before he could respond, leaving him alone in the dark.

  Eighteen Months before the Solarid Meteor Shower...

  I strolled into Altair Halls with a frown pulling at my brow and my eyes on the tiled floor. I was down to six days and I still hadn’t gotten the money I needed to pay Old Sal. I hadn’t been lying when I’d said that I went to school with some of the richest fuckers in Alestria but the problem was they all came from criminal families. And people like that weren’t easy to rob or con. Especially if I was planning on not getting caught.